I'm looking for a CD player with the following features:
No/low incidence of problems with audio CD copy-protection schemes
Digital output, preferably optical
Price of $600 US or less

I'm starting with zero knowledge here, so any pointers or discovery questions are most welcome

IMO standalone players ain't worth the money.
A good soundcard and ripping your CDs is a better alternative.

How about this one



Read more here I think it might be more of an image thing!

I was just about to recommend looking at one of the Rotel models myself...

I'm not really one of those that thinks that there are really significant differences between CD players though as long as they are well built and use relatively decent components... MTRH is right, if you're planning on hooking your system up to your PC, you'd do just as well (or better if you figure in error correction) with a PC CD-ROM and some nice ripping software or the like..

Another thing you might consider is that for $600 (actually for half of that even) you could get an SACD or DVD-Audio player also... which is probably what I would do instead of just plain CD, at least if I was going to spend that much money on a seperate.

What about when you don't want to turn on your computer ('cause you aint a computer nut like us) just to listen to music and prefer using a cd player?

Just buy a decent CD player.. So many are perfectly good..

Thanks for all the quick replies!

I probably should have mentioned that I already have a decent soundcard (TB Santa Cruz) and do rip my CD's (EAC, alt extreme, etc). It's just that some CD's, as we all know, are resistant. I'm looking for a CD player to help me exercise my fair use rights (I can handle the potential SCMS issues). Hopefully that sheds more light on my desired specs.

EDIT:
This one looks like it might fit the bill.

Oh, it does.
Well i believe almost any regular CD Player plays "protected" CD's well. So you don't really have to worry about that issue, but right, it won't hurt to know if a certain player actually has a problem with them.. It's rare.
So it's simple. You buy CD Player, you hook it up to sound card, you copy audio. So much for their moronic protections... Man they're such idiots...

If your only purpose is to rip protected cds, a new cd-rom might be all you need. I have ripped at least 5 protected cds without any problems with my Plextor 40TSi and EAC. I realise that nothing can be concluded based on this puny number, but maybe others can shed some light on the issue.

http://forum.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s...&threadid=46159

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/3332

Thanks.
I'm glad to know that my Yamaha CRW3200E can copy practically anything
http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5065

Might wanna take a look at this one:

http://www.yawaonline.com/nadc541icdpl.html
http://www.nadelectronics.com/CD/C541i.html

Thanks to all for opinions and pointers to info